Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore (R) on Wednesday said Rep. Ilhan Omar should go back to Somalia after the Minnesota Democrat called him a child molester while criticizing the Alabama GOP for seeking her expulsion from Congress.
{mosads}”I fully support the resolution of the Ala Rep Party asking Congress to expel Omar under Article 1 Section 5 of the US Constitution,” Moore said in a statement in which he called the first-term congresswoman an “avowed muslim” and a “sworn enemy of Israel.”
“President Trump was right, she should go back to Somalia from whence she came,” Moore added, referencing a “send her back” chant that a North Carolina rally crowd last month broke into as Trump targeted Omar, a Somali refugee who came to the U.S. with her family as a child.
The “send her back” chant at a Trump rally came the same week the president told Omar and a group of minority congresswoman to “go back” to where they came from. The president has since said that he did not agree with chant.
The statement from Moore came after Omar ripped the effort by Alabama’s state GOP to get Congress to expel her.
She said the GOP should be more concerned with its support of Moore in a 2017 special election Senate race.
“Sorry, [Alabama GOP], but this is a representative democracy,” Omar tweeted. “I was elected with 78% of the vote by the people of Minnesota’s 5th District, not the Alabama Republican Party.”
“If you want to clean up politics, maybe don’t nominate an accused child molester as your Senate candidate,” she added, an apparent reference to the allegations that Moore pursued sexual and romantic relationships with teenage girls in the 1970s, when he was in his 30s. Moore has adamantly denied the allegations.
Omar’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Moore’s statement.
The Alabama Republican Party last weekend passed a resolution calling for its state congressional delegation to begin the process of removing Omar from the House.
It cited a few issues that have repeatedly been brought up by Republicans criticizing Omar, including her comments on the United States’s relationship with Israel. Omar sparked backlash from both parties earlier this year after suggesting lawmakers support Israel because of the money they receive from lobbyists.
“Omar has a disturbing record of using anti-Semitic language that includes alleging Jewish money is used to buy American influence regarding its policy toward Israel,” the Alabama GOP resolution states.
The resolution, which was introduced by state Rep. Tommy Hanes, voiced disapproval with Omar’s public support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement that presses Israel on human rights issues in its conflict with the Palestinians and accused the congresswoman of engaging in “rhetoric that explicitly runs counter to American values and patriotism.”
The resolution also alleges Omar “dismissed” the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and “sympathized with a convicted terrorist” by pushing for “sentencing leniency.”
Moore’s support for the resolution comes as he once again campaigns for the Republican Senate nomination. The former Alabama Supreme Court Justice launched his bid to unseat Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) in June.
Donald Trump Jr., President Trump’s son, denounced Moore following the announcement, tweeting that move was “doing a disservice to all conservatives across the country.”